It’s always difficult to secure high-value inventory in the warehouse, and it’s even harder when the load resides in pallet racks, which are larger, have a conventionally open design, and more difficult to secure than inventory that sits on shelves or in carousels or within tool cribs.  Pallet rack loads can be palletized or stacked on decking, but either way they are more “open” than other types of inventory.  What are your alternatives?

1. Use upper bays to keep it out of reach.
2. Utilize secure aisles.
3. Store it in a separate area/facility.
4. Utilize rack-mounted security cages.
5. Utilize solid-side rack security enclosures.

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When it comes to storing controlled substances, in particular prescription drugs, the warehouse and bulk storage aspects are important for pharmaceutical, hospital central supply warehouses, or retail outlets. This is an area where many people who should not have access to medication may find easier opportunities for pilferage. The FDA offers some guidelines on how to operate securely, and within regulations. State licensing laws will typically reflect the minimum Federal requirements, but may exceed those, when it comes to the storage and handling of prescription drugs.

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The National Safety Council has released its list of the top 10 OSHA safety violations for 2009, and there is plenty to chew on if you are running a warehouse, manufacturing facility, military installation, or distribution center. In fact, several of these categories drop directly into the laps of material handling operations. Worse news: violations are up over 30 percent.

The list is as follows:

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One of the more dangerous items that you’ll find at virtually every facility is the humble gas cylinder. In warehouses or manufacturing operations, you’ll find LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) canisters that power gas forklifts. You’ll also find vertical cylinders for welders, cutting torches, or other equipment operations. Too often, you will find them standing against a wall or on the dock with no protection at all.

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We recently mailed thousands of dock equipment mini-catalogs, so you may already have a copy. If not, read on to download one.

It focuses on ways to improve productivity, safety, and security at the shipping & receiving dock. The focus is on equipment such as our exclusive truck-to-dock delivery vehicle conveyor,  dock bumpers, dockplates, and dock door security cages, plastic strip doors. We also toss in some basic storage equipment like shelving and racks, along with all kinds of protective equipment, including edge-of-dock safety gates, bollard covers, man trap dock door cages, column protectors, and more.

• Check out the mini-catalog here (966KB PDF, opens a new window). You can also contact customer service and request a hard copy.
• Article: Security at the Shipping Dock: How to Harden the Target.

Prices are fluid and subject to change in this day and age of energy and steel volatility, so check the part number on our website for any changes.

Duncan Prince of Material Handling Wholesaler has a short, informative piece you might appreciate on preventing workers’ compensation fraud.  In a system that costs business billions of dollars every year, there is ample opportunity — and motivation — for fraud.  Prince argues that many employers, but in particular smaller operations, take a hands-off approach to worker compensation. After all, they believe that it is just an insurance issue.

The problem: worker compensation fraud isn’t an insurance issue at all…

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It’s been the big story in manufacturing for more than a decade: companies are sending plants offshore to take advantage of inexpensive labor. But according to Exel Logistics, the advantages of manufacturing overseas have waned over the last few years. Will U.S. companies begin to bring manufacturing operations home, faced with increasing burdens and decreasing ROI on their overseas facilities?

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Inventory theft horror stories like this one are not as uncommon as you might wish.

The everyday stuff that hits many shipping docks may not be as organized, or to such a scale, but any operation that stores, ships or receives valuable items is at risk of being hit – or is already being hit to some degree.  In the above case, an organized group of thieves working at a shipping dock would simply wait until after a supervisor finished checking outbound shipments and add more to them. Since the shipments sat on the docks for 90 minutes, it gave the pilferers plenty of time to work on this. They would place extra cases onto staged pallets and those would ship out on trucks driven by colluding drivers. The next day, the drivers would sell the extra product for cash and split the proceeds with their warehouse accomplices.

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Leaving a dock door open all day is an invitation to have someone stroll your aisles, check out your inventory, and perhaps take something. Most busy operations, particularly in good weather situations, leave those doors open. Often, the crew is busy with actual work; they don’t have the time to monitor visitors, delivery drivers, service providers, and every other person who strolls in.

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With the focus on plant security the last few years, it’s little wonder that companies are outfitting their warehouses with security partitions and cages for high-value inventory, restricted access areas, tool cribs, and other places where more physical control of the property is needed. They are superb in these functions, keeping tools, components and inventories safe for a relatively low cost vs. other kinds of security measures.

Recently we started to offer welded wire partitions alongside the traditional woven cages that have been standard in the industry for years. Both are good equipment. Both will secure an area. Both will keep unauthorized people out of places they aren’t supposed to be. But they are different products, with different applications.

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